First Look: The Year’s Most Anticipated Bakery Is Open – and Selling Out Before 10am

The first thing to know about Daybaker is that it’s not trying to do everything. There’s no sprawling menu, no sourdough program, no all-day offering stretching into the evening. There are no T-shirts for sale, no take-home pantry staples. Instead, Charlie Duffy’s highly anticipated Abbotsford bakery is built around a single idea: do a small number of things extremely well. 

Before Daybaker, Duffy spent years at Tivoli Road Bakery and then Small Batch, where he developed a loyal following for his laminated pastries – counting as fans everyone from Yiaga’s Hugh Allen to Lune founder Kate Reid. Daybaker, which opened on Monday May 25, is already selling out of pastries by 9.30am.

The menu shows off his signature style with a core trio that will anchor the daily offering: a plain croissant, a chocolate wattleseed version, and a savoury option where cracked corn is co-fermented into the croissant dough with a spicy bomba calabrese butter folded in. 

Alongside those, a changing set of pastries will shift with the seasons, including a mixture of new creations and past Small Batch customer favourites, such as Duffy’s pear and Geraldton wax danish, all showcasing local produce.

“I want it to be a well-made pastry first and foremost,” he says. “There are fillings, but they shouldn’t overpower it. You should still taste the dough.” That balance carries through the rest of the opening menu. There’s a salt beef number with kraut and comté; a lemon meringue-style treat with a flakey tart shell, baked lemon cream, olive oil and finger lime; and a well-balanced chocolate, rye and toffee cookie.

Beyond pastry, the offering is just as restrained. Lunch is built around Roman-style pizzas and a couple of sandwiches made using stirato, an Italian baguette-like bread, with fillings that will change often. The concise coffee program, which uses beans from Mulberry Group’s Square One, follows suit.

It’s a deliberate approach, shaped as much by the space as the philosophy behind it. After a few years searching for a site, Duffy landed on a compact Abbotsford shop near Yarra Bend. The location, formerly Little Molli, ruled out certain ambitions but sharpened others.

“I like the fact that it’s not too big,” he says. “Having some element of restriction is a good thing. It forces you to get a bit more creative.”

Produce plays a central role. Duffy has longstanding relationships with growers across Victoria, many of whom feature on the opening menu. Pistachios come from Warrina Produce in the state’s north-east, flour from Tuerong Farm, and fruit and vegetables from Days Walk Farm.

One supplier in particular encapsulates the way Duffy likes to work. “I met Shane [O’Dea] at a farmers market years ago,” he says. “He’s a paediatrician by day and a pistachio farmer by night. Sometimes he’ll deliver to my house at eight at night after his shift. My daughter knows him as the pistachio man.”

Inside the kitchen, that same level of care extends to process. Dough is tracked meticulously as they dial things into the new space, with the team adjusting fermentation, hydration and mixing depending on the flour batch.

Duffy has recruited a star team. He is joined by former Small Batch colleague Katie Dale, alongside Maeve Rooney, who has relocated from acclaimed Scottish bakery Lannan especially for the role. Front of house is led by Miku Hayashi, formerly of Acoffee, who will shape the venue’s service and drinks offering.

For Duffy, opening Daybaker isn’t about arriving fully formed. It’s about building something that can evolve with the neighbourhood, slowly over time. “It might mean we’re not everything to everybody,” he says. “But what we do, we’ll do really well.”

Daybaker
66 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford
No phone

Hours:
Daily 7.30am–2.30pm

daybaker.com.au
@daybaker.melbourne